The Transporter Refueled

This review may contain spoilers!

A film that just can't live up to the original trilogy. I would give The Transporter Refueled a 4/10.

One of the most iconic things about this series are the car stunts, they are some very high points in terms of action. Another aspect that goes hand in hand with this is the fight choreography, it all flows and is quite brutal but the way the environment or props are incorporated makes it stand out. Finally the cinematography of this film has some big scale shots, the action flows quickly onscreen which is really important for a film like this.

Tatiana Pajkovic, who played Maria, really embraces this freelance almost mercenary role; her flirtatious character who has a lot of cunning had a lot of great chemistry with Stevenson.

However the best performance came from Ray Stevenson, who played Frank Senior. Stevenson puts a lot of effort into creating a character that is both suave and comedic; the scene where he buys the wine is probably the best example of this. As the film progresses we see Stevenson reach out and connect with as many of the cast as he can and a lot of scenes are improved for this. Ultimately his role is fun and his performance steals the show more often than not; the plane sequence was one of the best in the film purely for Stevenson's major presence in it.

It's a problem when an action film struggles with pacing, especially when said film has a short run time that is filled with action scenes that take too long to play out. The entire plot is really quite awful, you spend a lot of it watching an antagonist who's purpose isn't really well explained with a protagonist who is given a back story subplot without exploring this subplot much; the dialogue is corny and even cringe-worthy at times. The score and soundtrack are filled with so many different noises that it otherwise becomes bland or filled with too much variety. The special effects are minimal and poor attempts at recreating the absurd nature of the original films.

Ed Skrein, who played Frank Martin, is an awful Transporter; he can barely deliver lines and has no chemistry with anyone else in the cast. Loan Chabanol, who played Anna, isn't very good as the leading lady of this film; she kind of awkwardly stumbles through her plot and fails to connect with the rest of the cast. Gabriella Wright and Wenxia Yu, who played Gina and Qiao respectively, had very little screen presence; in fact the entire group of girls needed more explaining in terms of their formation as well as more backstory for every girl other than Anna. Radivoje Bukvic, who played Arkady Karasov, was a weak antagonist; his relationship to Frank was clumsily constructed and Bukvic often came across as more pathetic than intimidating. Noemie Lenoir, who played Maissa, had a lot of potential that was wasted in this film; there were scenes where she was clearly outperforming Bukvic but her entire performance was undermined by scenes where she was reduced to erotic dancing. Yuri Kolokolnikov and Lenn Kudrjawizki, who played Yuri and Leo Imasova respectively, gave pretty poor performances; their delivery felt forced and it was clear no one in the villain circle had much chemistry with one another.